Washington, 22 March 2026 (dpa/MIA) - US President Donald Trump has threatened to attack Iran’s power plants if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened within 48 hours.

"If Iran doesn’t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST," he wrote on Truth Social on Saturday evening.

In response, the Iranian military said if it's own fuel and energy facilities were hit, it would target US-linked energy infrastructure across the region, according to the Fars news agency.

Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most important shipping routes for oil exports, has virtually ground to a halt due to the war with Iran.

Trump's warning came as Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said that Israel and the US would "significantly escalate" their attacks on Iran in the coming days.

Iran's leadership would be targeted in the strikes, Katz said after consultations with senior military officials at army headquarters in Tel Aviv, according to his office.

He said Israel was determined to continue its campaign against Iran’s power structure, aiming to "decapitate its commanders and destroy its strategic capabilities" until all security threats to Israel and US interests in the region are eliminated.

On Friday, Trump said he was considering "winding down" the campaign against Iran, adding that the US was close to achieving its objectives in the conflict.

Israel, Iran attacks ongoing

Israel struck additional targets in Iran and Lebanon on Saturday and intercepted incoming attacks from Iran, the military said.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said rocket attacks were launched from Iran against Israel throughout the day.

Around 70 people were injured in Iranian missile strikes on the Israeli desert towns of Arad and Dimona, rescue workers said.

In Iran, more than 1,500 people have been killed since the war began three weeks ago, state broadcaster IRIB reported on Saturday, citing the health ministry.

More than 200 people under the age of 18 were among those killed and another 21,000 people had been injured, IRIB wrote on X.

Meanwhile, the US said its military has struck more than 8,000 targets in Iran since attacks began.

These included 130 Iranian vessels, said Brad Cooper, commander of the US Central Command, in a video posted on X. He called it "the largest elimination of a navy over a three-week period since World War II."

He said the military remained focused on "dismantling Iran's decades-old threat to the free flow of commerce throughout the Strait of Hormuz."

Nuclear facility also hit

Iran reported another attack on its Natanz nuclear facility, one of the country’s most important uranium enrichment sites.

The underground plant was targeted on Saturday, but no radioactive material was released, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, citing Iranian officials.

The White House has said a key objective of the war it launched alongside Israel on February 28 is to prevent Iran from ever acquiring nuclear weapons.

Israel views Iran’s nuclear and missile programmes as its greatest existential threat.

The United States and Israel had already bombed Iran’s nuclear infrastructure in June 2025. After those strikes, President Donald Trump said Iran's nuclear facilities had been "completely and totally obliterated."

Tehran has denied seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

Base in Diego Garcia hit

For the first time, Tehran fired missiles at the remote US-British base Diego Garcia.

Two ballistic missiles were fired at the military base in the Indian Ocean, according to state television.

However, neither hit the jointly-used base, the Wall Street Journal and CNN reported, citing senior US officials. One missile failed in flight and the second was intercepted, they said.

The base is located around 4,000 kilometres south-east of the Iranian coast, twice the officially confirmed range of Iran’s missile arsenal to date.

Iran vows revenge

Iran was defiant on Saturday, with the intelligence arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps saying it had analysed the "enemy’s vulnerabilities" and was preparing a new wave of attacks "using new strategies and more advanced systems."

The Guards also renewed threats of retaliation for strikes on the country’s infrastructure, according to IRIB.

Ali Akbar Velayati, a foreign policy adviser to the supreme leader, was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying the US and Israel were "talking so much about victory, as if trying to convince themselves."

He added that the world would be different after the war ends — "multipolar and with Iran as the main axis of the Islamic pole."

Photo: MIA archive